Black artist part of Altadena's rich past

ARTS advocate and historian of the Southern California arts scene Lyn Kienholz says she would have moved to Altadena in the 1960s rather than the Hollywood Hills if only she had known its semi-rural wonders.

Kienholz, author of "L.A. Rising: SoCal Artists before 1980," actually hadn't ever been to Altadena before a few weeks ago. And as she began a presentation at the Pacific Asia Museum on Sunday, she was clearly still somewhat confused about aspects of the unincorporated town's history - "I guess it is part of Pasadena, legally," she mistakenly said.

But she clearly gets the place, and came up with a great quote from seminal Southern California architect Wallace Neff to seal the deal: "In Altadena I have found the qualities that make life worth living."

Sunday, as part of "46 N. Los Robles: A History of the Pasadena Art Museum," on view through April 8, Kienholz visited on stage with artist Ian White, son of Altadena icon Charles White, one of whose charcoal drawings recently brought $200,000 at auction at a Manhattan gallery.

Though we locals think of Altadena as racially well-integrated since the dawn of time, Ian related that when his black father and white mother first moved to a small street in the western part of town in the 1950s, there were issues - and one angry neighbor simply moved away.

The couple themselves then moved away to Highland Park. And when they returned in the 1960s, to the Meadows neighborhood high in the foothills - which we now think of as one of the most middle-class of the African-American neighborhoods in the Southland - Charles and his children were actually the first black family there, Ian said.

Though his parents are gone, he still lives in the Meadows, and decided to follow in his dad's artistic footsteps in painting as well as teaching.

When Ian was asked what his father said to him when he announced that he wanted to be an artist as well, he said that it was a simple, two-word answer: "Add color."

"You see," Ian says, "Dad thought his work was too monochromatic."

From the stage, Ian produced two great film clips from a documentary made in the 1960s or early 1970s. One scene focused on Charles White's storied career as a teacher at the Otis Art Institute in L.A. During a class session, he discussed the overtly political aspects of his work versus an artist who declares that mere aesthetics are the only criteria:

"A painter who paints moonlight on black velvet is like a cat who marries a chick just because she is pretty! He's not changing anything!"

I doubt a teacher would be so crassly sexist in that awfully hip way today, but you catch his drift.

Then there was a scene in which Ian and his sister scrambled straight up a steep hill into the San Gabriel Mountains behind their home. It turns out that the house White bought was directly below the gravesite of Owen Brown, son of the fiery abolitionist John Brown, who participated in his father's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 that attempted to ignite a slave rebellion. Owen and his brother retired to a cabin above Altadena and died here in 1889.

On film, the two kids hug the gravestone, with its famous iron ornaments symbolizing freedom from the shackles of slavery.

The monument has been missing for 10 years now. Would whoever stole it kindly put it back?